Latest Resources

19 September 2023
Financialisation, dematerialisation, digitalisation & distancing of Africa’s agriculture
What future for small-scale farmers and their food and seed systems? Following on from part one, The rise of digital agriculture and dispossession in Africa: implications for smallholder farmers, part two looks at how private-sector interests and motives are driving the financialisation of Africa’s food and farming systems. Financialisation is the focus on generation of […]

30 August 2023
The rise of digital agriculture and dispossession in Africa: implications for smallholder farmers
In part one in a series of two, consisting of a briefing paper and linked fact sheet, we explore the current status of digital agriculture in Africa and the potential implications its deployment has for smallholder farmers on the continent. We outline three primary areas of concern related to potential inequitable benefits and influence accrued from its deployment; […]

10 May 2023
NO TO GM WHEAT IN SOUTH AFRICA!
We call on the government to reverse approval of GM wheat into our country Thank you to the 80+ organisations, listed below, who support this ACB submission to the South African Biosafety authorities, the Executive Council (EC): GMO Act, to review and reassess its decision to grant approval for the importation into South Africa of […]

10 February 2023
JUDGMENT ON ACB’S HIGH COURT REVIEW OF MONSANTO’S ALLEGED DROUGHT TOLERANT GM TRAIT PENDING
On Tuesday and Wednesday this week, 7-8 February, the ACB’s case was heard in the High Court. Five years earlier, the ACB lodged the application for this review, to overturn the decisions of the South African Executive Council (EC): Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) Act, the GMO Appeal Board, and the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and […]

19 September 2022
ACB comments on the Draft White Paper on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of South AfricaR...
Please find here ACB’s submission to the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment regarding the recently published Draft White Paper on Conservation and Sustainable Use of South Africa’s Biodiversity, 2022. The current conservation model and practice are founded on historical colonial practices, entrenched in apartheid, of over-exploitation and exclusion of African people. Historical inequalities have remained […]

7 September 2021
The African Union Green Recovery Action Plan: Securing Africa’s ecological future or deepening im...
Por favor clique aqui para Português Veuillez cliquer ici pour lire le texte français In July 2021 the African Union (AU) released a Green Recovery Action Plan for the continent, in the context of COVID-19 and climate change. The basis of the plan is that a “clean and resilient recovery in Africa will lead to […]

18 March 2021
Objection to commodity clearance of Pioneer Hi-Bred RSA GM soybean DAS-814419-2 x DAS-44406-6
Despite the grave warnings of the COVID 19 pandemic and the increased need to de-colonise and de-corporatise our food systems and shift towards sovereignty, there continues to be an increase in the applications for genetically modified organisms (GMOs) of the 2,4-D variety, for introduction into the South African farming and food system. This trend is […]

10 March 2021
Reflections on the Regional Dialogue on African Food Systems, at the Seventh Session of the Afric...
On 4 March 2021, a Regional Dialogue on African Food Systems took place at the Seventh Session of the Africa Regional Forum on Sustainable Development in Brazzaville, Republic of Congo. This is the African Centre for Biodiversity’s response to the event. From reading the background document issued to frame the dialogue topics and participants in […]

12 February 2021
SAN Petition to Stop ReconAfrica’s Drilling operations in the Okavango
Indigenous Peoples and Africans are under threat from Recon Africa and Big Oil and Gas Development Permits have been issued to prospect, drill and ultimately extract oil and gas over 8.75 million acres of the Kalahari Desert in Namibia and Botswana extending to the south eastern banks of the Okavango River and Okavango Delta. The […]

22 January 2021
Tanzania cancels GMO trials again: Urgent need to uphold ban, disrupt false solutions and neo-col...
In a totally unexpected move, the newly appointed Tanzania Agricultural Minister, Prof Adolf Mkenda, in mid-January 2021 announced the cancellation of research trials involving genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in the country and the decision to put in place extra biosafety scrutiny of imported genetically modified (GM) seed. The decision was taken by the Minister in […]